Royal Shakespeare Company Associate Schools Programme
As one of the largest regional theatres in the East Midlands, we’re proud to be the Lead Theatre Partner in the Royal Shakespeare Company Associate Schools Programme in Nottingham. Working alongside ten primary, secondary and special state schools, the programme brings about a significant change in the way young people experience, engage with, and take ownership of the work of Shakespeare. Through the programme teachers learn to explore Shakespeare with their students in the way actors do in a rehearsal room, using dynamic, active approaches.
Nottingham Puppet Festival
Established in 2018, Nottingham Puppet Festival sees national and international puppet shows, workshops, talks, screenings and events take place all across the city, alongside a programme of exciting community activities. Working with City Arts and Nottingham Trent University, our inaugural puppet festival took place in venues including Broadway Cinema, The Malt Cross, Dance 4 and Nottingham City libraries, as well as outdoor performances in Market Square. Approximately 23,500 people took part and work is now underway for the next Nottingham Puppet Festival.
City Arts
City Arts is a Nottingham based charity that works with diverse communities of all ages, abilities and economic status to bring people together through creative arts opportunities. We have worked alongside City Arts with care home residents, young people and those who have suffered with mental ill health. We are also collaborating on the Celebrating Age programme, a project that involves members of the community having the chance to perform with the renowned orchestra, the Hallé.
Inspire Music
We support several projects for young musicians through our partnership with Inspire Music, the Nottinghamshire Music Education Hub. Together our aim is to ignite the ambition of young musicians across the county. These projects include Now Hear This, an orchestral concert for Key Stage 2 pupils with our resident orchestra, the Hallé; an acappella singing project for secondary schools with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain; plus Inspire Orchestra and Play the School programmes with the National Youth Orchestra.
Nottingham Trent University
The Nottingham Trent University Choir regularly performs at events in the Royal Concert Hall, including concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. We also provide students from the University’s Decorative Arts and Design departments opportunities to observe orchestras in rehearsal and to work with us on our orchestral pops concerts. Recently we have also been working with the university’s School of Social Sciences on a research project exploring the mental health benefits of listening to classical music.
University of Nottingham
We work with the University of Nottingham to provide regular work experience placements and performance opportunities for students. Student musicians have performed on the Royal Concert Hall stage as part of our After Hours series and also collaborated on an assortment of shared performance programmes, such as the Soundstage Festival. Other work with the University of Nottingham has included projects led by the Mixed Reality Laboratory, plus the development of a digital archive in partnership with the School of English and Horizon Digital Economy Research.